Have you ever seen a collapse like that? Ever? I’m still scraping myself off the floor. Another crazy week at work left me almost comatose by the time I turned on the television to try to catch the rest of the Bruins-Flyers Game 7 final on Friday night. Second intermission. Tie game. OK, looks like I’ll at least get to watch the third period.
Zzz.
Next thing I know, I wake up, and TSN is showing some baseball highlights. I flip around only to find out that:
(a) I’ve missed one of the best Game 7 finals in this year’s Playoff run (so far) and
(b) my neck is stiff and sore from sleeping in a funny position.
As I finally find a channel to watch the highlights with my head stuck at a 86 degree tilt, the enormity of what the Flyers have accomplished slowly sinks in. Note to Bruin fans: quit complaining about the too-many-men on the ice call — The Bruins are the collective equivalent of Bill Buckner on skates.
I think I heard someone say that this is the first time a seventh-seeded team has home ice advantage for the conference final. It’s almost like the hockey gods decided to have fun with this edition of the Playoffs and screw up everyone’s pool picks in the Eastern Conference.
So we have the seventh and eighth seeds in the East ready to battle either the first or second seed from the West. What is even more bizarre is of the various sites I have visited (OK, I know it is not very scientific), the East is picked as the winner in every case.
Montreal is looking very much like a team of destiny, and the same can be said of Philly. It’s not the first time I’ve been called a “bandwagon” fan, for jumping teams (I was cheering for Pittsburgh), but I’ll have to now root for the Canadiens. They’re a likeable bunch and you have to like the underdog, if being an eighth seed instead of a seventh seed entitles you to the underdog label. I think Chicago has a really good chance too.
But back to the implosion of the Bruins. It’s easy to question the penalty call, or whether it was Marc Savard or Milan Lucic who was at fault, but that would be missing the point. A team simply does not lose a series when they are up 3-0 on the basis of one play.
And just like Buckner, it was not one play, that cost Boston the series. It really does take an entire team to collapse the way they did.
Stay classy, Bill Buckner and the Boston Bruins.
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I don’t know if that wouldve made a difference but why not give Thomas a chance after Rask has clearly lost his edge, what happened to the Vezina goalie? It’s unfair to blame the loss on one person but there’s something terribely wrong with the way they blew up both the series and that game 7. Good thing they’ll have Hall next year to help them out ;)
One obvious knock against the Bruins was a lack of goal scoring all year. When a 40-something Mark Recchi is your top dog, that’s a big problem. I know Savard and Lucic missed a lot of games, but the point is strong.
One thing I question is the kind of leadership in the Bruins locker room. They end the 1st period up 3-1 and then end the 2nd period tied. Every Flyers goal was an instance of Bostin getting outworked by Philly. In the 3rd, it seemed like Philly wanted it more. Much has been said about Chara’s 0-5 game 7 record, so with he and their other veterans, where was the leadership? Who was the guy saying “this needs to be our best period of the year”?? The way they collapsed throughout games 4, 5 and 6 is telling, too. The second JVR scored to make it 3-1 Boston in game 7, I instantly knew Philly was going to win the game. I think Boston would do well to get more players like Manny Malholtra this summer. Clearly, some of their guys gave up when it counted most. They’d also serve Hall or Seguin well to learn from.
Game 7 was a tight game and there were a number of Boston chances throughout the game that almost went in. I think they hit 3 goal posts or something like that before Gagne’s 4-3 goal.
Either way, I thought Boston blew it in Game 5 when they had Philly on the ropes and couldn’t sneak out a victory on home ice. Once they lost that one, the series was pretty much over.
Kudos to the Flyers though. It was a great team effort and I think it’s fair to say the better team won.
My take-aways from that series are that I can’t believe 23 teams passed on drafting Mike Richards in 2003 before Philadelphia took him. I know I’ve said this before, but that one is just shocking. I also find it funny that everybody loves Danny Briere right now and very few Flyers fans believe he’s currently overpaid. I’m also (finally) starting to understand why people rate Simon Gagne so highly. I always thought he was a soft player, but the Flyers are a completely different team with him in the lineup. He’s such a great clutch player! Finally, I think Michael Leighton is going to next year’s Craig Anderson. I hope he gets a chance to be an NHL starter next season because he’s been very solid for the Flyers over the past few games.
Having said all this, sorry Habs fans, but it’s going to be a tough series for Montreal to win. Philly looks too good right now. Flyers in 6 games.